Method and means for binding fibrous building material



Aug. 29, 1939. BERGER 2,171,388

METHOD AND MEANS FOR BINDING FIBROUS BUILDING MATERIAL Filed June 22,1937 IWIII/IIIII' null/I111 Patented Aug. 29, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE METHOD AND MEANS FOR BINDING FIBROUS BUILDING MATERIAL LudwigBerger, Knittelfeld, Styria, Austria 2 Claims.

The present invention relates to a method of applying transverse bindingwires to slabs of fibrous material and to apparatus for cutting the Wireso as to form the binding ties.

It is known to manufacture slabs from reed, straw or similar fibrousbuilding material by compressing and binding the same with wire. Duringthis process the reed or straw is compacted between a plurality of upperand lower strands of wire and these strands of wire are arranged acrossthe fibers of the reed and tensioned so that two opposite strands may betied together by a transversely extending wire or wire hook.

The present invention pertains particularly to mechanical means forfeeding and cutting the transverse wires in connection with themanufacture of pressed reed or straw slabs.

It has been found that the end of the transverse fastening wire duringthe manufacturing processes previously employed does not advance atright angles to the tensioning wire because of the curvature itpossesses when moved from the supply reel. Thus the wire tends to bendupon being pushed forward and an ineffective bond often results becausethe bent portion of the wire prevents the looping device from engagingthe free ends of the transverse wire.

In carrying out the present invention a conveyor is arranged to graspthe wire at the outlet of a distributor nozzle so as to cause the wireto advance in the desired direction. When the wire is moved forward tothe desired extent which varies according to the thickness of the slab,it is held in position against the longitudinal tensioned strands by asuitable holding device and the end portion of the transverse wire isthen cut and the free ends thereof are looped or wrapped around thelongitudinal strands. Such an ar rangement provides a satisfactorymethod of binding slabs even if the fastening wire is supplied from areel of small diameter.

The method of carrying out the binding operation will be apparent fromthe following description and the cutting device will be readilyunderstood from a consideration of the following description and theappended drawing wherein an exemplary embodiment of the invention isdisclosed.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of the cutting device illustrating the mannerin which the binding wire is fed to a position adjacent the slab.

Fig. 2 is a View similar to Fig. 1 illustrating the manner in which theend portion of the wire is severed.

Fig. 3 is a view partly in section and elevation taken at right angleswith respect to Fig. 1 illustrating the manner in which the conveyordevice grasps the end of the transverse wire.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 illustrating the 5 manner in whichthe end portion of the wire is held in place after it has been severed.

Referring particularly to Fig. 1 the transverse fastening wire A isstored on a supply reel 6 from which the wire is drawn by the feedingroller R 10 and guided into the distributing nozzle 01 by means of theroller r. The wire A passes through the distributor nozzle down to thebuilding slab which consists of reed or straws held betweenlongitudinally arranged tension wires 1) and the slab is bound by thepreviously aflixed transverse wires a.

In order that the wire A will project from the lower end of the nozzlewithout moving laterally a tubular type conveyor h. is arranged to move20 upwardly and grasp the wire as it moves from the lower end of thenozzle. In other words when the mouth of the conveyor it reaches themouth of the outlet the wire is moved forward and the conveyor returnsto a position below the lower 25 surface of the slab. After the endportion of the wire has been thus advanced for the required length thewire is held in position against the longitudinal wires b by means ofthe fork-like holder f as shown in Fig. 4. When the wire is in 30 such aposition the end portion is severed by rotation of the distributingnozzle 11 which is hereinafter described in detail.

The means for holding the severed portion a of the transverse wire inposition so as to pre- 35 vent it from falling away from thelongitudinal strands b prior to the looping operation is shown in Fig.4. The transverse wire A having advanced to the required extent is heldagainst the tensioning strands b by means of the fork-like hold- 40 ingmember 1. The two free ends of the severed wire a" are then loopedaround the tensioning wires b by means of a looping mechanism (notshown) or this bending operation may be accomplished manually so thatthe end portions of 45 the severed wire take the position illustrated inthe dotted lines of Fig. 4 to provide a binding tie for the longitudinalwires b.

The device for cutting the wire A so as to form the binding ties aincludes the distributor nozzle 50 d which is rotatably mounted in afixed part i of the machine. The distributor nozzle is provided with aslanting feed channel and the inlet e thereof is arranged in alignmentwith the longitudinal axis of the nozzle and the outlet 0 55 is radiallydisplaced with respect to the axis as illustrated in Fig. 1. The nozzlemay be rotated by a lever arm 10 which engages the nozzle proper in anysuitable manner so as to rotate the same upon movement of the lever arm2). Thus when the wire A projects below the outlet 0 rotation of thenozzle will cause the wire to engage the sharp edge of the knife m andcut the wire. The knife m. is rigidly fixed adjacent the outlet end ofthe nozzle and the operation of the cutting device will be apparent froma consideration of Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing.

After the binding ties a have been applied in the manner above describedan additional layer of reed or straw may be moved into the space inbetween the longitudinal Wires 1) and another transverse binding wiremay be applied thereto by following the method hereinabove described.

While the invention has been described by reference to the particularsteps necessary for applying the transverse binding ties and a referenceto a particular cutting device it is apparent that modifications may bemade therein by those skilled in the art. Such modifications may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for binding slabs formed of fibrous material and havingwire along two opposite surfaces thereof, a rotatable nozzle arrangedadjacent one surface of the slab, means for feeding a wire into thenozzle, said nozzle having an inlet opening arranged on the axis of thenozzle and an outlet opening radially displaced with respect to the axisof the nozzle, and cutting means mounted in a fixed relation withrespect to the outlet end of the nozzle whereby the wire may be cut intotransverse binding pieces upon rotation of the nozzle.

2. A method of applying transverse binding ties to a slab formed offibrous building material having wires extending along two oppositesurfaces thereof which comprises, feeding a continuous wire to aposition with an end thereof adjacent one face of the slab, guiding theend of the wire to the opposite surface of the fibrous material, cuttingthe wire adjacent the first mentioned surface and thereafter looping theends of the severed wire respectively around the surface Wires.

LUDWIG BERGER.

